Listen to Inge Auerbacher and Kurt Messerschmidt, survivors of the Holocaust, as they remember their time in Theresienstadt and the ways in which the Nazis attempted to present the ghetto to the public and visiting Red Cross officials.
About the Interviewees
Inge Auerbacher, daughter of Berthold and Regina, was born on December 31, 1934, in Kippenheim, Germany. Inge was the last Jewish child born in Kippenheim; the doctor who delivered her was a member of the Nazi party. Inge grew up in a modern Orthodox Jewish family. In November 1938, synagogues, Jewish businesses, and Jewish homes in Germany, Austria, and parts of Czechoslovakia were burned down. This event is known as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. Inge’s father and grandfather were arrested and sent to Dachau, a concentration camp in Germany. After a short time, both men were released. On August 22, 1942, Inge and her parents were deported to Theresienstadt, a camp-ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Inge, Berthold, and Regina survived the Holocaust. They immigrated to America in 1946. Inge became a chemist and an author. This interview was conducted on May 9, 1995, in Jamaica, New York.
Kurt Messerschmidt was born on January 2, 1915, in Werneuchen, Germany. Kurt was raised by his mother, Else. Kurt had a younger half-brother, Henry Oertelt. Kurt was a linguistics scholar, musician, and athlete. After the Nazis were elected to power in 1933, Kurt witnessed the intensifying persecution of Jews. Kurt’s family remained in Berlin until 1943, when they were deported, along with Kurt’s fiancée, Sonja, to the Theresienstadt camp-ghetto in Czechoslovakia. Kurt and Sonja married in Theresienstadt but soon were separated when Kurt and his brother were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Kurt and Henry were assigned to a work detail at Golleschau, where they remained until January 1945. The brothers were sent on a death march to Sachsenhausen, and were then sent to Flossenbürg, where they were separated. Kurt was liberated near Traunstein, Germany, on May 1, 1945. Kurt and Sonja were reunited after the war, and they immigrated to the United States in 1950. They had two children, and at the time of Kurt’s interview in 1997, they had two grandchildren. This interview took place in Portland, Maine, in the United States on June 24, 1997. Kurt passed away on September 12, 2017.